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˚* ੈ✩‧₊ Charon's (Translated) Bio

I was reading through the dppt documents and came across Charon's bio among a few other platinum characters and some interesting diagrams.

I wanted to focus on Charon's in particular though because I found some tidbits interesting! Please do read more if you're interested―

(Keep in mind though that I'm relying on a machine translation as I am not fluent enough, I also tried to make sense of some shakier translations by adding additional context/alterations, those will be in blue. Please do not view this as a professional translation, I really just want to share what I find and learn as I go.)

please click on the image for better viewing!

* Meiōsei (冥王星) refers to the dwarf planet's Japanese name btw^^

A lot of the character bios in the documents list the Japanese pronouns they use to refer to themselves and others, Charon uses the following:

* "washi" is used by older men and is often (stereotypically) used in fictional/western dialects to denote characters of old age. Apparently this pronoun isn't very common anymore. * "watashi" is a more common pronoun but he rarely uses this. It's also used mostly by women but (supposedly) can come across as stiff when used by males in a casual context.

The second-person pronouns are where it gets interesting, but I'm not sure if one or the other isn't used or if both are unused in JP versions of Platinum.

* "onushi" which literally means "Master", is an archaic pronoun used by samurai and elders when speaking to people of equal or lower rank which seems fine, but reading a bit more into it, this could be seen as a turn of phrase that comes off as rude? Like maybe Charon would use this to talk down to others in a sort-of condescending manner. * "sonata" is a mesial deictic pronoun, so this was used in previous eras as a lightly respectful one but not so much anymore. What makes it interesting is that when used now, it carries a pompous and old-fashioned tone when used in speaking to inferiors (which in this context could be the grunts or maybe the other commanders and even Cyrus if we're going by the age differences.)

Again, while these second-person pronouns may not have been used if we're going by the translation in the bio, it does make sense for Charon considering the way he speaks to the other Team Galactic members in-game and why many of them are visibly put-off, even more so when we remember that he only recently joined Galactic and is the most junior among his fellow commanders.

This part's a bit more ramble-y (and mildly speculative) mainly because it's got me thinking a lot about his presence in-game and how it ties with his bio.

We now know why we don't fight him story-wise. He's a novice when it comes to battling, which also explains why he only ever seems to accompany the other commanders throughout the main story and has grunts do the dirty work for him in the post-game's Stark Mountain. (We can also say that it's mainly because he's old and just a scientist, but that didn't stop the other scientists in the HQ from engaging the player in a fight, what more for trainers like Spenser and Drayden who are 88 and 69 years old respectively? Surely even a spry, young...71 year old can pick up a pokeball if they wanted.)

On the topic of his motivations, we're all very much aware of his love for money, but the bio also makes mention of a philosophy regarding happiness being tied to science along with the distortion of this through greed. Of course, both Pokespe and DPA focus on and highlight his greed and need for control through capturing legendary pokemon or usurping Cyrus. Or both. We also see this in-game. However, If we go by the anime, Charon seems less invested in his boss's goals and more on the scientific discoveries to be made in pursuit of said ambitions. While his greed and backhandedness is on the spotlight for most of his appearances, we do get glimpses of another side to him where he does show some genuine interest in whatever he is immersed in, such as the Valley Windworks mission where he comments on the electricity he and Mars had stolen or even the Mysterious Notebook he authored (NOT the Old Notebook, mind you), where he goes over his "findings" on Rotom. Make no mistake, it's all done in the name of getting all the credit for its discovery, but it does say a lot that he's willing to do extra/extensive research on Rotom beyond what he "found". With the bio in mind, I wonder if the belief he carried was always distorted or if it somehow came to be that way down the line and that he used to be more into it for the knowledge and discovery in the past rather than for personal gain/profit.

This is the part I wanted to go over the most, but it'll also be the most speculative one because there are still pieces to the puzzle that are missing buuuuuut―

So it's very much established in both Platinum and his bio in the design document that Charon is amoral enough to steal and plagiarize for his personal gain; the latter mentioning that it wasn't just research papers, but inventions as well. The Mysterious Notebook is what makes this interesting, because Charon writes the following at the beginning and end of the entry:

With this in mind, it brings into question just how and where he acquired information on Rotom in the first place before he added in his own tests and findings. Pure chance is a stretch to be sure, there is only one Rotom in-game and only one other account of its existence, The Old Notebook. So now the question isn't a matter of where and how, but from whom. After all, why would he need to "keep his research a secret" to "ensure he gets all the credit" if he was the original author? Another thing that the bio establishes is that Charon judges people based on how useful they are to him, and in Platinum, he has (somewhat indirectly) mentioned his reasons for joining Team Galactic in the first place:

What I'm getting at here is that Charon determined it was in his best interest to join Team Galactic because he figured that with the resources at his disposal as a commander along with his boss's ambitions, he would have a lot to gain from doing so. And now that we also know of his penchant for the theft of anything related to his field, who among the ranks of the organization is the most useful to him in terms of both the means and the ends? His boss. Cyrus.

Whose to say that Charon hadn't tried to steal anything from him? Platinum had also gone out of its way to establish that Cyrus possessed a knack for tinkering along with a keen intellect from the times the player interacted with him along with supplementary information from certain objects and accounts from NPCs:

Fellow staff and scientists aside, Charon's best bet for finding something worth plagiarizing and stealing would be his own superior's works. Suddenly, Rotom's Room being where it is makes sense, it's far from the main HQ on the other side of the region in a backwater town where there aren't a lot of staff nor grunts posted. Even with his junior standing, Charon still most likely held some form of authority and could pull a few strings to either build or repurpose a spare room just to stash his haul away from Cyrus's eyes. (Or at least, as far away from it as he could manage.) And despite the lack of concrete, definitive confirmation, it's clear that the Old Notebook's entries were written in a way that did not reflect Charon's own manner of speech and writing; especially when taken into account that it was written long ago by a child with an unusually advanced vocabulary and stiff formality in tone. There really is only one person who would fit the child's description perfectly. We all already know/have an idea of who this is of course, but it's an interesting thought nonetheless; how Charon managed to get his hands on something that should never have reached him.

This is all just speculation, though! But if you made it this far, thank you for reading.

I'd love to see people talk about Charon a little more since he's honestly the most neglected (and forgotten!) commander, but surprisingly amusing and refreshing to see him stick out as a more Team Rocket-esque villain rather than how the rest of his colleagues act and present themselves.

If I made any errors with the translations, feel free to clarify or make additional remarks.

Also it's 10 in the morning and I haven't slept at all since yesterday. Help.

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